President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday signed a global ban on chemical weapons, clearing the way for Russia's destruction of 44,000 tons of chemical weapons -- the largest chemical arsenal. Moscow's assent was considered essential for the Chemical Weapons Convention to succeed. Russia was among 165 countries that signed the ban in 1993, but until recently, parliament had been reluctant to ratify it. The Chemical Weapons Convention bans the use, production, stockpiling and...

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Syria has given international experts additional details about its chemical weapons program that go beyond a Sept. 21 declaration of its poison gas arsenal, the United Nations said on Friday. The team consists of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague, Netherlands, with help from U.N. personnel. Last week, the U.N. Security Council demanded the...

The Clinton administration says Syria has a chemical weapons program and has armed missiles, warplanes and artillery shells containing sarin, the nerve gas. Indian businesses and possibly a retired Russian general assisted in developing the arsenal, a knowledgeable official told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We do not believe the Russian government was involved," the official said. Sarin is a nerve gas that was used in a terrorist attack in the Tokyo...

By Louis Charbonneau UNITED NATIONS, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Syria's foreign minister on Monday compared what he described as an invasion of foreign terrorists across his country to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. In a speech to the annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem also said that "terrorists from more than 83 countries are engaged in the killing of our people and our army...

Russia has budgeted $174 million for destroying chemical weapons in 2003, far less than what is needed, the head of the chemical disarmament program said Wednesday. Zinovy Pak, who is in charge of the Russian Munitions Agency, said the allocation was nearly equal to 2002, which he says is not enough. Russia has the world's largest stockpile of chemical weapons, with nearly 44,000 tons of material. It pledged to destroy the arsenal by 2007, but has requested a five-year...

The United States and Russia may still ratify the landmark Chemical Weapons Convention before its entry into force April 29, the executive secretary of the commission overseeing the accord said Monday. The two largest possessors of chemical weapons -- with declared stocks of some 70,000 tons between them -- have signed the treaty prohibiting the development, production or use of chemical weapons, but both have yet to ratify it. The U.S. Senate was to have voted on ratification...

To bomb, or not to bomb Syria? That is the question of the day. And there's no easy answer. Let's start with the givens. We know the deployment of chemical weapons is not just a "red line" drawn by President Obama. Their use has been universally condemned, especially since the end of World War I. Today, 189 nations have ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), which outlaws the production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons -- and calls for their destruction by those countries in possession.

A landmark convention banning the development, production, stockpiling and use of chemical weapons will enter into force on April 29, 1997, after Hungary became the 65th country to ratify the accord, a UN spokesman said Thursday. The Chemical Weapons Convention, which also calls for the destruction of chemical weapons and their production facilities, has been signed by 160 countries. It enters into force 180 days after receipt by the UN of the 65th ratification. Among the signatories...

By Anthony Deutsch AMSTERDAM, April 26 (Reuters) - Assertions of chemical weapon use in Syria by Western and Israeli officials citing photos, sporadic shelling and traces of toxins do not meet the standard of proof needed for a U.N. team of experts waiting to gather their own field evidence. Weapons inspectors will only determine whether banned chemical agents were used in the two-year-old conflict if they are able to access sites and take soil,...

In an announcement laced with chilling candor, the Pentagon has finally revealed the amount and location of America's stockpiles of chemical weapons, those doomsday powders, sprays and gases with nightmare-evoking names like sarin (officially it's Nerve Agent GB) and Odorless VX. By any name, they are all human pesticides. The Defense Department is to be commended for a full, if belated, accounting of its 30,000 tons of chemical arms, which are divided into an arsenal of 3.6 million...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - An advance team of U.N.-mandated experts has gone to Cyprus and is awaiting permission from the Syrian government to investigate allegations of chemical weapons attacks, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday. The move puts pressure on Syria to grant access to the team, as Damascus resists extending the investigation beyond a government claim that rebels used chemical munitions near Aleppo to include rebel claims that President Bashar...

In the annals of 20th Century warfare, hardly a weapon short of nuclear explosives has produced such loathing and terror as those classified as chemical weapons, more commonly known as poison gas. Considered the poor-man's A-bomb because of their ease of manufacture and battlefield delivery, the use of chemicals was considered so inhumane that even the Nazis declined their deployment on the battlefield--if not in the extermination camps....

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. officials said that Syria has started to move part of its chemical weapons arsenal out of storage facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The country's undeclared stockpiles of sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide have long worried U.S. officials and their allies in the region, the report said. Western nations have looked for signs amid the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's...

Right now, the U.S. Senate doesn't have to go shopping to give us a wonderful present--a chance for a safer world. All it has to do is ratify two excellent agreements. As most Americans know, START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) reduces the Cold War nuclear stockpile by almost three-quarters, leaving a "mere" 3,500 deployed strategic warheads each for Russia and the U.S. The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) would do much to remove chemical weapons from the scene. Among many other benefits,...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel believes there is no immediate risk of Syria's chemical weapons falling into the hands of militants, a senior minister said on Tuesday, despite its growing worries about fighting there which has prompted Israeli calls for outside military intervention. "At this stage, the Syrian regime has firm control over the chemical weapons arsenal, but there are al Qaeda elements in Syria and therefore we are maintaining close scrutiny," Vice Prime Minister...

WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - U.S. officials said that Syria has started to move part of its chemical weapons arsenal out of storage facilities, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The country's undeclared stockpiles of sarin nerve agent, mustard gas and cyanide have long worried U.S. officials and their allies in the region, the report said. Western nations have looked for signs amid the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad's...